Skill enhancement: MoU on shoemaking training

Participants will be helped with job placement in footwear industry.

LAHORE: The Technical Education and Vocational Training Authority and the Pakistan Footwear Manufacturing Association (PFMA) on Friday signed a memorandum of understanding to launch a training course in shoe stitching.

A press statement issued on the occasion stated that the course would help train skilled labour for the footwear industry in the country. It said a short course would be started in the pilot phase in Lahore.

Another course would later be started in Gujranwala, it added.

Further, it said that there was no pre-requisite for enrolment into the course. The TEVTA and the PFMA would issue a joint certificate of training to the graduates on completion of the course, it added.

Speaking at the ceremony, TEVTA Chairperson Irfan Qaiser Shaikh said under the MoU TEVTA would be responsible for selection of trainers and designing of the curriculum. He said the PFMA would provide equipment and help graduates find internships and jobs after successful completion of the course.

PFMA Chairman Muhammad Younas hoped collaboration with the TEVTA would help the footwear industry overcome its shortage of skilled labour. He said growth of the industry could help the country improve its export-related earnings.

The ceremony was also attended by PFMA office bearers Mian Muhammad Afzal, Mansoor Ehsan Shaikh, Abid Hafeez, Javaid Siddiqui, Mian Nasir Shaikh, Rasheed Islam and Kashif Afzal, TEVTA Chief Operating Officer Jawad Ahmad Qureshi, General Managers Hamid Ghani Anjum, Abdul Qayum, Azhar Iqbal Shad and  Akhtar Abbas Bharwana.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 16^th, 2015.